Mayor wants vocal ethics panel member out

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders wants to oust the most vocal member of the city's Ethics Commission after a tenure that saw escalating fines for politicians and a push for more investigative power.

Gil Cabrera, 36, a business litigation attorney, would be the first commissioner in the panel's eight-year history to be denied a second four-year term despite a willingness to serve.

The Mayor's Office confirmed the decision last night, saying through a spokesman that Cabrera “served admirably” but Sanders wanted to give someone else an opportunity.

The mayor plans to reappoint two other commissioners – Lee Biddle and Clyde Fuller – so Cabrera questioned whether fresh blood was the only factor.

“As far as I know, I have a great relationship with the Mayor's Office,” Cabrera said. “The only thing that I've done differently from the two commissioners that were reappointed is, I have been the spokesman for the commission for the last two years.”

Cabrera, who just finished two years as commission chairman, successfully pushed for the panel to be able to launch its own investigations and accept anonymous complaints. He also shepherded new laws that require broad disclosures from lobbyists.

The mayor's actions require City Council approval, but Cabrera may not find much sympathy there. Council President Ben Hueso criticized the commission last year and suggested it should not publicize its fines.

Cabrera blasted the council for delaying a proposal to give the commission subpoena power to compel witnesses and declining to make it illegal to lie to the commission.

“What we've been told over these last three meetings is 'make your fines less and shut up about what you do,' ” Cabrera told a reporter.

During Cabrera's tenure, the commission has fined Hueso and Councilmen Carl DeMaio and Tony Young and former City Attorney Michael Aguirre. Supporters of Sanders' 2005 bid for mayor also were fined $25,000 by the commission.

Cabrera, a Democrat, said he wasn't given a reason for the mayor's decision.

The mayor asked the council and city attorney for nominees in an April 27 memo, noting one of the commissioners was termed out. Sanders did not say he planned to replace Cabrera.

Councilwoman Donna Frye, who nominated Cabrera in response to the memo, said she was surprised by Sanders' decision and called Cabrera an honest, fair-minded public servant. But she said not everyone gets reappointed just because they want to be.

“So I don't think the mayor is trying to make an example of Gil,” Frye said.

Sanders has chosen Evonne Schulze, 75, a retired educator and Democrat from the Rolando neighborhood of San Diego, to replace Cabrera. She was nominated by Councilwoman Marti Emerald.